Released Illegal Immigrant Accused of Raping, Murdering New Orleans Mother

NEW ORLEANS – An illegal immigrant once in federal custody but was released is now accused of raping and murdering a New Orleans mother in her home.

Irwin Gomez-Colon, a 31-year-old illegal immigrant from Honduras, is facing second-degree murder charges after he allegedly raped, strangled, and stabbed Nancy Yahaira Gonzalez Rodriguez to death, according to WWL-TV.

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Before 2015, Gomez-Colon was arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Texas for being in the U.S. illegally. However, Gomez-Colon’s case was dismissed.

Then, in April 2015, Gomez-Colon was arrested by the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and charged with allegedly kidnapping, raping, and strangling a woman. The charges against Gomez-Colon, though, were later dropped because of inconsistencies in the statements by the alleged victim, according to the district attorney.

In that case, Gomez-Colon was allegedly friends with the victim when he entered her home. After speaking for about 30 minutes, Gomez-Colon said he was going to use the bathroom, but when he came back, he had a knife and forced the victim into a bedroom where he allegedly raped and strangled her.

Now, Gomez-Colon is accused of murdering Gonzalez Rodriguez, whom police say he raped, strangled, and stabbed more than 20 times. When the victim was found, her 4-year-old son was sitting next to her crying.

Under ICE’s newest enforcement policies in accordance with Trump administration’s crackdown, the agency places a ‘detainer’ on any illegal immigrant who is arrested by authorities. The detainer alerts local and state police that the arrested suspect is an illegal immigrant and must be turned over to ICE before being released from custody.

But, in 2015, under the Obama administration’s lax enforcement of immigration, ICE only placed detainers on illegal immigrants who were convicted of a crime. This, according to ICE, is why there was no alert to the NOPD back in 2015 that Gomez-Colon was an illegal immigrant when he was arrested and charged for the rape and strangulation of his alleged previous victim.

ICE does have a detainer on Gomez-Colon now. If for any reason the illegal immigrant is let out of New Orleans officials’ custody, he will be handed over to ICE for deportation.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.